05 Why Tithe?
It was the end of church service and the pastor made a call for tithes and offerings. As the offering plate was passed to Alice, she looked at it in disgust. "Again?" she thought to herself. "Why are they hassling me and asking me for money every week? Forget this!" She passes the plate on.
The plate was then passed to Bob who looked at it tentatively. "Aw, I don't want to give money, but I don't want to look cheap either," he thought to himself. "I know, I'll just pretend to put some money in. That way I won't feel so bad!" Bob then makes an exaggerated motion and pretends to put some money in the plate and quickly passes it on.
When the plate came to Carl, he just sighed. "Well, I guess I'll give something," he thought to himself. "I don't want to look cheap, but I don't want to get embarrassed if I got caught pretending to put money in the offering plate." He slowly pulls out his wallet and looks for some money. "Let's see what I got. A ten, twenty, twenty, hundred...oh wait! Here's a one dollar bill!" Carl looks at the lone dollar bill, sighs some more, and grudgingly puts it in the plate and passes it on.
The plate finally makes its way to Denise at the end of the pew. "God has really blessed me this week!" she thought to herself with a smile. "I think I'll even put in a couple extra bucks as a thanksgiving offering in addition to my tithe. I know God will bless me even more as long as I am tithing faithfully!" Denise cheerfully drops in a tithe envelope with a check in the amount of one tenth her last paycheck. She also puts in a couple of dollars extra for good measure.
Tithing is the act of giving 10% of one's income to God. Tithing was practiced by both Abraham the patriarch in the Old Testament and Paul the apostle in the New Testament. Jesus Christ also upheld this principle.
Tithing is not merely a matter of money - it is a matter of worship. By faithfully tithing, we recognize that God owns everything, including ourselves, and that He is our Creator. God has promised us that if we faithfully tithe, He will pour out so much blessing that we will not have room to receive it!
- Recommended reading: Malachi 3:8-12
